Deutsche Bank Says NEIN To DoJ Fine

You gotta love Deutsche Bank (NYSE:DB) . The US Justice Department proposed the bank pay $14 billion to settle a high-profile mortgage-backed securities case stemming from their involvement in the financial crisis. Deutsche’s response. Nein.

Not nine, like the number, but Nein, for “No” in German. Deutsche pushed back strongly against the proposal. But it’s not like they didn’t expect to write a check. The Deutsche bag has $6.2 billion in it right now. Behind closed doors, it’s rumored lawyers for the bank were expecting somewhere between two and three billion. After all, the bank has already paid out nearly two million to settle an earlier case in 2013.

The $14 billion is close to the $16.65 billion Bank of America (NYSE:C) paid in 2014. If you look at JPMorgan Chase (NYSE:JPM) , Citigroup (NYSE:C) , and Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) have already dished out more than $23 billion combined. Often times the Justice Department starts with a high number then negotiates a lower penalty.

It’s like when you go out to buy a car and the salesman throws out $600 a month for that 2013 C-class you’re looking at, when you were only trying to spend like $400. Eventually, you end up walking out of there for $550 and somehow you’re happy about it.

Deutsche’s not the last European bank that’s going to catch a fine. Barclays (LON:BARC), Credit Suisse (SIX:CSGN), UBS and Royal Bank of Scotland (LON:RBS) are all in the crosshairs.

Let this be a lesson to all you bankers out there! If you commit fraud, fleece homeowners, throw people out on the street and tank the economy all in the name of corporate profits, a few election years later after you’ve retired with your golden parachute, your bank is going to have a pay a small fraction of those profits back. So you think about that.

Deutsche is down 10% on the news. Personally, I’ve been bearish on the bank since digging finding out they were cu-cu for CoCos a few months ago. It was a good video, you should check it out. The bank is the only Zacks Rank #5 (Strong Sell) in the foreign bank industry which ranks in the Top 21% of our Zacks Industry Rank.

Every time you share this video, Germany sends my Grandma another war reparations check. Chime in the comments below. Tell me how much you think the DoJ should fine Deutsche Bank. Subscribe to the YouTube channel, Twitter @bartosiastics, and come back here for all the Trending Stocks with Zacks.com, I’m Dave Bartosiak.